U.S. News Ranks Pittsburgh Area's Best Public High Schools: See How KO Fared

PITTSBURGH, PA — U.S. News & World Report has ranked the best institutions in Pittsburgh as part of its 2026-2027 Best High Schools list.

U.S. News evaluated about 27,000 eligible public high schools nationwide and ranked nearly 18,000 of them.

Here are the top 50 ranked high schools in the Pittsburgh metro area. Their Pennsylvania rankings are listed parenthetically.

1. Peters (9)

2. Upper St. Clair (12)

3. Fox Chapel (14)

4. Mt. Lebanon (15)

5. Pine-Richland (16)

6. Hampton (18)

7. Pittsburgh CAPA (19)

8. South Fayette (20)

9. Quaker Valley (26)

10. Neshannock (27)

11. North Allegheny (35)

12. Thomas Jefferson (40)

13. Pittsburgh Science & Technology Academy (41)

14. Shenango (42)

15. Penn Trafford (47)

16. Freeport (52)

17. West Allegheny (69)

18. Mars Area (74)

19. Moon (77)

20. Avonworth (80)

21. Franklin Regional (83)

22. Keystone Oaks (94)

23. South Park (95)

24. Canon-McMillan (99)

25. Chartiers-Houston (103)

26. West Shamokin (104)

27. Norwin (107)

28. Pittsburgh Allderdice (108)

29. Armstrong (109)

30. Union Area (118)

31. South Side (131)

32. Trinity (142)

33. Beaver Area (148)

34. Hempfield Area (153)

35. Bethel Park (154)

36. Carlynton(155)

37. Montour (159)

38. Bentworth (166)

39. Apollo Ridge (173)

40. Kiski Area (180)

41. Slippery Rock (183)

42. Gateway (187)

43. Wilmington Area (188)

44. Deer Lakes (194)

45. Springdale (197)

46. Fort Cherry (199)

47. Blackhawk (206)

48. Chartiers Valley (212)

49. Shaler Area (216)

50. Central Valley (228)

According to U.S. News, Pennsylvania has 654 school districts, 771 high schools, 45,273 full-time teachers and 628,427 students enrolled.

In coordination with North Carolina-based RTI International, a global nonprofit social science research firm U.S. News ranked nearly 18,000 public high schools nationally out of more than 27,000 reviewed.

U.S. News did this by summing their weighted scores across six indicators of school quality, then computing a single zero to 100 overall score reflective of a school's performance across these metrics.

The overall scores depict how well each school did on a national percentile basis. For example, a school with a score of 60 performed in the 60th percentile among all schools in the rankings.

The rankings' performance measures included student achievement on state-required assessments, graduation rates, and college readiness.

U.S. News also consided how well schools serve underserved students, participation and performance on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams, curriculum breadth, and overall student outcomes.

The full rankings are available at U.S. News& World Report.